Monster Hunter Wilds beta: How to defeat Rey Dau

Monster Hunter Wilds features some truly terrifying beasts, like the frog-gorilla hybrid Chatcabra and the hulking bear Doshaguma. But just like our wilderness, there can only be one at the top of the food chain. While the aforementioned monsters can be found in the Windward Plains, even they have to bow down to the area’s Apex Monster—the lightning wyvern Rey Dau. This fearsome beast only appears during thunderstorms, giving it quite the theatrical entrance. You’ll need to give it your all to defeat Rey Dau in the Monster Hunter Wilds beta.

Since we’ve only fought this crackling wyvern in the beta so far, this Rey Dau guide is aimed at helping you do the same with the limited weapons and gear at your disposal. For the final game, we’ll update the guide with details on the best weapons and armor to craft, Rey Dau’s weaknesses, part drops, and more.

Monster Hunter Wilds: Rey Dau overview

What type of monster is Rey Dau?

Rey Dau is a new Flying Wyvern introduced in Monster Hunter Wilds and is the apex predator of the Windward Plains—which is the starting biome in the game. The most striking feature of Rey Dau is its ability to harness electricity through the horns on its head and channel it into railgun-like blasts. And considering it only appears during thunderstorms, there’s no shortage of lightning. The electricity will build up during the battle, with its wings and tail glowing blue when it’s fully charged.

But even without the power of Thor on its side, Rey Dau is no slouch thanks to a spiked tail and massive wings that have (also massive) sword-like blades at their tips. The wyvern’s mix of both short-range and long-range capabilities means that if you don’t go in well prepared it’s extremely likely you’ll be heading home on a cart.

How to fight Rey Dau

Rey Dau attacks to watch out for

Rey Dau has a number of attacks you’ll want to keep an eye out for, a lot of which it shares with fellow Flying Wyverns. Here’s how to counter them.

• Tail Spin – One of Rey Dau’s most common attacks is doing a 180-degree turn while whipping its tail. It telegraphs this attack by looking over its shoulder before spinning the opposite way. You’ll want to dodge backwards away from Rey Dau. This attack’s impact is also lessened by severing Rey Dau’s tail, which removes the massive club on its end.
• Stab – Rey Dau will pause, rear its head back, and bring its horns forward and then stab at you while emitting a lightning bolt. It also commonly does this move out of a charge. Just dodge out of the way during the pause, and you should be fine.
• Wing Slash – Rey Dau will slam its sword wing down as lightning bursts from it. It then drags it across the ground before swiping rubble into the air. It telegraphs this move by raising one wing into the air, but you don’t get too much lead time. This can be dodged by rolling forward and to either side. Rey Dau will also do this attack from the air, swiping the sword across the ground as it flies by.
• Flying Wing Smash – Rey Dau will lunge back while spinning into the air before slamming its wing sword down into the ground. Following the slam, its wing will be stuck in the ground, allowing you the chance to counterattack.
• Lightning Bolt – Rey Dau will point its horns forward and shoot out bolts of lightning at you. Before the bolt is fired, a smaller line of lightning will shoot out, showing you where the actual blast will follow. These are pretty slim so dodging to the side will do the trick, but beware of Rey Dau firing multiple shots in a row. This move can be performed on the ground or in the air, but the horn tell still persists across both variants. The monster will also swipe its tail as it fires, so be careful when attacking from behind.
• Charge Beam – Rey Dau will throw its head up into the sky and harness lightning into its horns. It will then step back and point its horns forward while charging up electricity throughout its body before letting out a massive beam of lightning. Thankfully, this beam is only shot slightly in front of the monster into the ground, so you’re completely safe around the sides. This move can also be done in the air, with Rey Dau jumping backwards dramatically before spinning and taking aim. This version still takes time to charge, so you’ll have time to dodge. After this attack Rey Dau will let its guard down and its horns out, leaving its face completely unguarded. When unguarded, its face counts as a wound, so using a focus attack here will net you a knockdown and allow you to pile on damage.

Rey Dau’s weaknesses

Currently we don’t know what Rey Dau’s weakness is in Monster Hunter Wilds officially.

Based on the design and moves of Rey Dau, we know with almost 100% certainty that its weakness isn’t going to be thunder. But outside of that, Capcom has given no indication of what elements will be strong against Rey Dau. Looking at previous Thunder Flying Wyverns, we have the Khezu, which is weak to fire, and the Astalos, which is weak to ice and water. Between these two, we’d assume that Rey Dau will be weak to ice, especially since the Fanged Wyvern Zinogre—which also harnesses electricity—is similarly weak to it.

Granted, this won’t matter in the Monster Hunter Wilds Beta anyway, as you won’t be able to craft weapons during the test. You’re stuck to non-elemental weapons, and you’ll need to do your best to succeed.

Rey Dau guide: Best weapons and armor

Best weapons against Rey Dau

Due to Rey Dau’s strong long- and short-range capabilities, you’re going to want a weapon that offers a lot of mobility, making us recommend the likes of Sword and Shield, Charge Blade, Long Sword, Dual Blades, or Insect Glaive. These weapons will also be good for chopping off the tail of the Rey Dau, which significantly reduces its capabilities as an offensive weapon.

That being said, a blunt instrument like the Hammer or Hunting Horn could be good for smashing the bone swords on Rey Dau’s Wings, or even its horns, which will reduce the damage from its lightning attacks.

Best armor and skills against Rey Dau

Monster Hunter Wilds’ beta is too limited to give us choices in gear or ideal skills to equip against Rey Dau, but we’ll have more to say here when Wilds hits its full release.